Pseduotumor Cerebri

To say we had an eventful Christmas would be an understatement. We had SO much planned for the latter half of December but sometimes big scary things happen and change everything. And this happened to us.

December 16th we hit the road to drive to Florida. We stopped to spend the first night in Dallas and during this short drive I noticed I was having a headache and my vision was a little blurry. My ears were stuffy too, so I attributed this to maybe a sinus infection. The next morning we drove another long day and again I had a bad headache and my vision was off. So Ben did most of the driving. We stayed that night in a hotel, and the morning of the 18th we finished driving in to Merritt Island to my parent's house.

The day after we arrived in Florida I went to an urgent care clinic and was given a prescription for antibiotics. The doctor suggested I may need to go to the hospital if I was having blurry vision. I tried the antibiotics for a day hoping I would feel better. The next morning Ben, my sister and myself woke up and headed to Orlando to go to Universal Studios for the day. Three hours into this trip I told them I needed to go to the hospital, so we did.

I went to Orlando East hospital where I was given an MRI and a CT scan which showed nothing wrong with my brain. I spent the night in the hospital, and was discharged with instructions to see an Opthomolgist. The next day Ben, Betsy, my Dad and sister went to Disney world and my mom and I hung out at the hotel. Then the next day I saw an Opthamologist (my cousin works for one in the area, what a God send!). He looked in my eyes, discovered my optic nerves were terribly swollen and directed me to go straight to an emergency room and let them know I probably needed a spinal tap.

SO, we headed to the closest hospital, in Melbourne, Florida. The doctors looked at the report from the opthomologist, heard my symptoms and that I had already had an MRI and CT scan (which they later repeated) and they gave me a Spinal Tap. This immediately relieved my headache and vision problems. I was admitted to the hospital December 23 and would stay there until December 27th.

What the doctors discovered is I had elevated pressure on my brain. I had too much spinal fluid and it was causing all these problems. I have a condition called Pseudo tumor Cerebri. We talked about putting a shunt in my brain (scary!). The CT scan showed I have exceptionally tiny ventricles in my brain and the neurosurgeon would not do this surgery on me. We started me on a prescription called Diamox, which is a diuretic that slows the production of spinal fluid. I had a second Spinal Tap, was deemed stable enough to travel and was discharged.

The next morning I boarded a plane and flew back to Texas. Ben had flew back with the two girls the day before. I had completely missed Christmas. I missed Disney world. I STILL haven't opened my Christmas presents, they are all in the back of my car that we left in Florida. I missed my best friend's wedding on New Years Eve.

Flying back was very rough. I was utterly weak and exhausted. The light hurt my eyes so I wore sunglasses the whole trip. I had to have someone push me in a wheelchair through three airports. But I was SO glad to be home.

As soon as I landed Ben told me that with the help of a very dear family friend who pulled some strings with our local hospital, I got in to see a neurologist the day I arrived back to Texas. The next morning I had an appointment scheduled with an opthomologist to see how my vision was progressing. This was REALLY wonderful to come home and immediately be in the care of a team of doctors who wanted to make a PLAN to treat my condition. In the hospital in Florida it was made very clear they just wanted to get me stable, and get me home.

The day after my appointments we went to buy me some new running shoes. And I cut and donated 10 inches of my hair! I was just SO exhausted I couldn't even brush my hair. I'm enjoying that my new short hair is so low maintenance.

It's been two weeks since I've been out of the hospital and it's like a night and day difference. Our plan of treatment for my condition is to keep me on the maximum dose of this medication until my optic nerve swelling is gone. It's already improved significantly. Losing weight may very well CURE my condition so I've obviously thrown myself whole heartily into eating healthy. I've lost 20 pounds since this ordeal has started, and losing just 20 more may resolve my symptoms.

I've been back to work since January 2nd, we're in registration at work. I'm pretty exhausted by the end of the day, but I'm able to do pretty much everything I could before all this happened. My vision isn't quite 20/20 but I'm very hopeful that I'll gain back the vision I've lost. And I have larger blind spots than people typically do.
I had my first follow up with my neurologist yesterday and he's happy with my progress, and so am I. My medication has side effects. My hands and feet tingle. I have a bad taste in my mouth. I get really tired. But it's working! I haven't had headaches. My vision is improving. I follow up with my optho in a couple weeks, and the neuro in another month, and I'm hopeful for some more success with my weight loss. I'm hopeful this will cure the condition I have!

SO, it was a crazy, crazy, Christmas break. But I'm lucky to be where I am. And my girls still got to spend Christmas with my family, which I appreciated. And I really look forward to what this year will bring. We've completely changed our eating habits. There is no junk food, no soda in our house. I feel like we will look like a completely different family at the end of the year. I'm sad that I missed seeing the girls open their Christmas gifts, and I missed Disney World with Betsy, and I missed Megan's wedding which looked amazing. But I now know that what happened to me was life threatening. So I feel pretty lucky to be where I am today.

One and Three

In the last week we've celebrated both Ella and Betsy's birthdays! Saturday we had a party and many of our loved ones came over and shared a meal, a movie (that I made of the girls), cupcakes, football and of course, present unwrapping. It's been a very fun week.

Monday I took the girls for their well baby appointments and here are the stats!

Ella is 30 inches long and 19 pounds. She's in the 79% for length and 17% for weight. Betsy is 36 inches long and 29 pounds. She's in the 39% for height and 37% for weight. There were shots for both, and some tears and stickers

Dr. C is really happy with their growth and development. It's such a blessing to watch them grow. Having healthy children is a gift we try not to take for granted.

It's been kind of nice to be a more mellow second time parent, whereas with Betsy I was really worried about all her milestones. Of course I still watch for those with Ella, and we celebrate them as they happen, but I'm just enjoying her being little right now. Because this phase doesn't last very long and it might very well be the last time we have an infant!

Betsy's verbal ability is just CRAZY to me. She uses new words all the time, and asks for us to define what things are. I love listening to Betsy trying to teach Ella words in the backseat on the drive home every day. When Ella repeats something Betsy laughs and laughs, and Ella chimes in because she wants to do everything big sister does.

So happy birthday week to Ella and Betsy! I look forward to many more birthdays with you girls.

Birthdays with the Bergers

This weekend we headed to Dallas to see cousin Abby Berger and celebrate her second birthday! Abby is about a year younger than Betsy and a year older than Ella and I foresee MANY fun nights in the future for the three of these little ones. They enjoy each other's company so much, and it's nice for Betsy to have a girl-cousin her age to hang out with, as she has several boy-cousins close-by to play with.

On Saturday we drove up for the party, and it was at a fun location called Kidville. It was by far the most interactive and kid-centered birthday party I've ever been to. It was FANTASTIC. The kids attending were the perfect ages for the activities they had! They made crafts (sunglasses and tambourines!) they got temporary tattoo-stickers, the played in a kid oriented gym, they had pizza and juice and the cake (OMG. It was amazing. Christi, could you just send me ONE more piece?).

After the party we headed back to Abby's house to open presents (where Betsy helped with the opening). The girls played dress up for a while, and then we all headed over to the mall so Abby and Betsy could build-a-bear which was part of our birthday gift for Abs! They were all a little cranky, but they built their bears (Betsy picked a blue bear that sings the Jonas Brother's Love Bug song. Abby picked a traditional bear that sings Happy Birthday!). Then we went out for Mexican food.

Our little monsters slept SO hard after all that excitement...though I did find Betsy curled in a ball on the Berger couch after climbing out of the portacrib in the office!

We had a great time and we are so excited to get to see them in a couple weeks for EJB and ECB's birthday party in December!

I LOVE all this family close by. It's such a gift for my girls to be BFFs with their cousins. Now for a few pictures!

Hi-Ho, to the North Pole I go!

This year we're participating in the Elf-On-The-Shelf game. This concept is basically a book that tells kiddos that a scout elf is coming to visit our home for the holiday season. The children name the elf (our elf is Hi-Ho-Guy), and the elf flies to the North Pole nightly to report to Santa if the children have been naughty or nice. Betsy also insists Hi-Ho-Guy sings the Hi-Ho song to Santa nightly.

Last night we read our Elf on the Shelf book in bed as a family and as soon as the kiddos fell asleep Ben ran to the living room to move Hi-Ho-Guy. This morning Betsy and Ben rushed into the living room to find him (hanging out on a candlestick) and tell him that Betsy slept in her bed all night last night.

Betsy and Ben also whispered to Hi-Ho-Guy what they would like Santa to bring this year. Betsy said "pink camera" and I'm pretty sure Ben whispered PlayStation 3. Too bad Ben's been so naughty this year.

This is a fun little game for Betsy and I love that she understands it this year! I'm looking forward to Hi-Ho-Guy (or a different named version) every year while the girls grow up. I'll have to post pictures of the fun places our elf finds to monitor the Bralley behaviour.

Don't tell Betsy and Ella...

Don't tell Betsy and Ella (for three more weeks until their birthdays!) but this is what they are getting from my mom and myself for their birthdays! My kiddos have lots of toys, and Christmas quickly follows their birthdays. So we were thinking this would be a fun present for the two little ones to grow into for a few years to come! We ordered the 'oversize' anywhere chair from Pottery Barn kids, and the bottom one is a size comparison for how 'oversize' it really is. I can easily sit in this chair, but it's low enough to the ground that the girls can get in and out on their own. Betsy and Ella both got red chairs, and I think these will be a great addition to their space in the playroom! A friend pointed me to a 'secret sale' PB was having and another friend sent me a coupon code, so I ended up getting both for the price of one.

I can't wait for their birthdays to get here so we can show them! It's a good thing we have so many fun plans in the next few weeks to keep us busy until then :)

The longest day of the year

Is it just me, or did this 'longest day of the year' seem to last FOREVER? It was like a time warp opened and we crammed three days worth of stuff into one day. Ben cleaned out the garage, built a bench, took down the Christmas decor, took Betsy for breakfast, went grocery shopping, cooked four meals for dinners this week, gave the kids a bath, and we watched a movie! And I made four pumpkin rolls, wrapped Christmas presents, put up and decorated the tree, cleaned the kitchen (twice) had a wrestling match with the girls, helped Ella work on her walking, ordered Christmas cards and new wall prints for our house.

The kiddos slept great, played with us and one another (and loved the fisher price nativity set that came out with the Christmas stuff). Bets was SO EXCITED about the tree, it makes us even more excited about the most wonderful time of the year.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was SO much fun this year. Betsy and William are at an age where they really understand what's happening. Ella and Hudson are just along for the ride. I can't express with words how much I love seeing my girls with my nephews so often. Betsy and Will are SO close. They adore one another, and are probably the best friends of all time. It's like they are twins, who spend just enough time apart to really like each other. I hope 10 years from now as they hit their teen years they still love, play, and protect one another like they do now.

Betsy has a big appreciation for cows that carried over to our Halloween theme this year. We see cows almost daily in the couple miles we drive from my in-laws house to our house. We also happen to LOVE... Chick Fil A. We decided to make Betsy and William cows together, then we borrowed a costume for Ella and three cows yielded the CFA advertising 'Eat mor chikin' motif. Cousin Hudson (or Huddy) came as Simba from the Lion King. My father-in-law Jim came over, and Ben, Mary, JD and Jim all took the kids TOTing while Tiffany and I handed out candy.

Here are pictures of our little hiefers!